Costa Tropical in November - From Nerja to Almunecar

Wednesday is the day we move to Almuñécar but since we don't have to check out until 12 o'clock and the bus to Almunecar is at 12.40 we have practically the whole morning. We have booked more free tickets to the Cuevas de Nerja for two reasons. First of all, because we wanted to go back up there anyway to see the Botanical garden, and secondly because while the visual experience in the Caves was great, I don't actually know what I saw, except for the Hall of Cataclysms, so I want to see if the audio guide provides more information about different features of the caves. So, we repeat the operation of Monday morning, only this time the ("same") bus drops us right in Maro at the foot of the start of the footbridge to the Cuevas, instead of at the roundabout. 

The botanical gardens are bigger than we expected and there are a lot of already established plants to look at despite the fact it's November so not the best time of the year for plants and flowers. There are various sections which reproduce different habitats and a vegetable garden and endemic plant section. Time soon passes and after half an hour we have to cut our visit short to go into the caves.

This time, in the hope of gleaning more information about what to see, I've bought an audioguide for the princely sum of one euro. It proves to be a waste even of that small amount of money. Ok it does tell you which hall you are in, but nothing about what to look at or specifically notice while you are there. There's a lot of padding with general information about the caves which is better gleaned online or in the museum. What is the point of standing in the caves looking at pictures on a screen? I'm not impressed. Also, for some reason you can't hear the commentary if you use your own earphones, only the background music, who knows why. There's a written version but every time a photo comes up the text disappears and as soon as the audio stops the text and the audio disappear altogether and you can't reactivate either! You don't know when it's going to start unless you keep the earpiece on because the device only makes a sort of vibration when a photo appears so most of the time I miss it. The whole thing is not a success and I much prefered the visit without, although this time Andrea, who has been studying  the how-to-take-photos-in-the-dark side of things is much more satisfied with the results.

We are out in time to get the 10.35 bus back to Nerja, so we buy our tickets for Almuñécar, have a quick sandwich and then check out. We wait the rest of the time in the gardens near the bus stop.

The bus from Nerja to Almuñécar is a few minutes late but we arrive at our destination in time to cross the road and behind the square with the palm trees find the Línea 1 circular bus which for 1€ per person takes us to the corner below the steep climb to our apartment. Going uphill is worth it, the view is spectacular. 

Once we've left our stuff it's more or less a 10 minute walk to Mercadona, which seems particularly well-stocked. Back at the apartment we snack on Queso fresco de Burgos with the miel de caña we bought in Frigiliana. Delicious! The rest of the day is dedicated to resting, getting sorted, washing and cooking. Tomorrow we will explore!